Aurette
"Just shut up or I'll tell you what else to do with those three fingers." Raised in Olaka, Aurette is a young Precursor who believed to be a Shape-Shifter for most of her life. Feeling like an outsider in the Shape-Shifter community, she ran away from home in search of her true family and identity. She can usually be seen covered from head to toe in order to hide her unusual appearance, and those lucky enough to catch a glimpse of her without her cowl can be counted on one hand. Curious passersby with questions about her glowing skin and eyes are lied to, told off, or simply ignored. While nimble and light on her feet thanks to spending years surviving on her own, being alone for such a long time has caused Aurette to become socially isolated and distant. As a way of coping with her feelings of loneliness, she’s forced herself to be pessimistic and to expect the worst. Fully aware she is different, she hides her insecurities with indifference, refusing to let others in to avoid getting hurt. Despite this, deep down Aurette's still the emotional and sensitive girl she once was, with idealistic yet unrealistic expectations of the future. She just hasn't found the right people to trust yet. Background When she was roughly four years old, Aurette was found at the outskirts of the Deadlands in Olaka by the Shape-Shifters of Clan Laferraux. While not too eager to take the odd child along, the youngest daughter of the clan leader convinced her father to let her take care of the girl. Celin Laferraux, unable to have children of her own, loved Aurette like her own daughter. Her strange appearance was blamed on the high concentration of magic in the Deadlands, and the Shape-Shifters accepted her as one of their kind. ..Until she hit puberty and showed no signs of being able to change shape. The fact that, unlike the other children, Aurette wasn’t even able to change her appearance when asked made the other clan members suspicious, and it didn’t take long for her to notice the rumours and whispers. Craving for acceptance, she made up stories about changing shape and painted her skin, but to no avail. The insults and hurtful remarks made her disappear from the clan for days, rather spending time alone than hearing the evergrowing laughter of the others. It wasn’t until she confronted her mother about her true identity, she decided to take what she could and run. By the time her family noticed her absence had been longer than usual, she was already long gone. Aurette spent three years in Tumoria, working as a scavenger to earn some coin. She picked up some Morish, but never learned more than the essential “How much is it worth”, “I’m a Shape-Shifter” and a few swears for good measure. Hoping to find answers about herself in the old cities, she kept everything she deemed valuable or useful herself instead. And she got lucky, as her findings all pointed to one place. Mioura. Fifth Dream of Arplakoon Mioura: The Forgotten Past After arriving at the gates of Fort Darackei, Aurette soon finds herself attacked by skeleton wolves. Working together with other travellers waiting to get in, she manages to dispose of the threat quickly and without casualties. However, instead of blending into the crowd again, she notices Zrakati and Natalya confronting a masked figure. He reveals himself as Thorn, and shows Aurette his glowing skin and face, telling her he's a protogod. Aurette, feeling emotionally overwhelmed after finally seeing someone else like her, begs him to take her with him. Thorn refuses, but promises her he will be at the Village of Stone the next day. Afterwards, Aurette is comforted by Kirsta, Zra and Natalya, and she eventually agrees to come with Kirsta after she offers to teach her ancient precursor. Together with the others, they visit Governor Danazzi, who gives them a map and sends them on their way to take care of the undead problem at Dokani Castle. Later that night, Kirsta teaches her some ancient precursor, and Aurette teaches Kirsta a bad word in morish. The next morning, Aurette gathers information about the Village of Stone with Kirsta and Natalya, and after regrouping with the others, they set out. They reach the Abyssal Gorge without problems, but make the terrible mistake of all going on the bridge at once, and it breaks. Fortunately, nobody dies, though there's a brief argument between Aurette and Mirra. After making sure they've secured a way back, they continue on their way, but they're interrupted when a large stone lion suddenly starts chasing after them. The group starts running towards the Village of Stone, still being chased by the Colossus. Aurette safely reaches the village and finds a hiding spot, but helps Natalya distract the stone creature when it has Kirsta and Zra cornered. However, she fucks up, and hits Brinegill with an arrow instead. Kirsta manages to distract the stone lion, and the group flees further into the village, where Aurette spots Thorn. He guides them to a safe place where they can rest and ask him questions, and after the others have done so, Thorn agrees to speak with Aurette in private. In addition to teaching her about their people and culture, he also explains there might be a way to stop the colossi, and perhaps also prevent the precursors from going extinct. Aurette agrees to help him, and find the portal in Dokani Castle to travel to the past. After resting, the group gets ready to discuss a plan for the coming day, but that's abruptly cut short when Kirsta and Brinegill make Thorn's house fall down on him and Aurette. After some longer arguing this time, they eventually agree to set out for a cave in the forest first, hoping there might be something there to help them fight the colossi, seeing as they refuse to go there. On their way to the forest, Aurette touches an unimportant sigil that totally didn't set off any traps they will run in later, and finds an old cloak which she puts on immediately. After a brief search they find the cave, but as they explore it, they find it's full of black chrono traps. Deep inside, they run into a Kannar child, who promises to answer their questions if they can guess his identity. Aurette knows shit fuck, but Kirsta guesses right, and the child turns out to be Arplakoon. After a while, Aurette gathers up the courage to ask Arplakoon about her past, but he refuses to tell her, claiming she wouldn't believe him. However, he does tell her that she has a parent looking for her, and that he's sure she'll find them in the future. When Arplakoon teleports them out of his cave, the group soon finds out they're being watched by another figure with a mask and a cloak. Aurette tries to get the others to run, but they stand their ground, and they soon discover the figure is one of the colossi, the Queen, who is then joined by another colossus resembling a snake. The Queen threatens them, but when they finally decide to run, she doesn't follow. They safely get out of the forest, and quickly reach the Altar of the New Gods. There, they discover some ancient inscriptions, and Aurette finds a mask at the bottom of a well on top of the Altar. However, she loses her balance trying to grab it and falls in, and, in a series of unfortunate events, gets dropped on her head twice before the others finally manage to get her out. They continue on their way to Dokani Castle, and while they're walking, Aurette tells the others about Thorn's plan and one of the favors he asked of her: to find a nameless girl hiding in the castle. When they reach it, they're greeted with the lovely sight of hanging corpses, and the group carefully makes their way inside. They manage to find the portal fairly quickly, but take a while longer searching for the girl, and they make quite a lot of noise doing so. This, fortunately, attracts the attention of said girl, and they find her hiding in the prison below the castle. They convince the girl to come with them, saying they're friends of Thorn. They also wait for him to catch up with them, but when he doesn't appear, they decide to go through the portal. Once in the past, Natalya sees a suspicious figure walking through the now less scary looking castle, and follows them. The person notices her though, and while annoyed, introduces herself as Felaji. They immediately ask her for help, eager to make a friend, but Felaji doesn't feel the same way and tells them they can't get out of the castle, seeing they're all three-fingered. She then corrects herself when she notices Aurette still has five. The group figures out all of them have been disguised by the portal, except for Aurette apparently. She, in a slight panic, decides it's a good idea to pretend to be a noble in front of Felaji, which turns out to be a huge mistake. Felaji yells at Aurette, telling her to fuck off, and walks away. Aurette yells the same things back, and the others get angry at Aurette. Luckily, Zra manages to talk to Felaji, and she agrees to get someone else to help them. After a while they are welcomed by a girl with a pure white mask, the Heir, and her companion Goluragg the Snake-Bearer. Once they see the nameless girl with them, however, they grow silent, and ask the group to speak with them in private. The girl reveals herself to be Fanred the Past-Seer, and not the Heir, she was merely pretending to be her since the true Heir had been murdered. The group tells Fanred the truth and convince her they're from the future with the help of the mask Aurette found earlier, which seems to be the exact same one as Fanred's. Fanred in turn trusts them with the knowledge that the girl they took with them is Ainori the Heir, which should be impossible considering she's supposed to be dead. Ainori then tells the group she's been dead for a long time, probably brought back to life by the necromancy of the Queen. They then decide to split up, leaving Ainori with Kirsta. One half goes with Goluragg to question past-Thorn, who seems to be in prison, and Aurette goes with Fanred and Natalya to find out if there's anyone in Ores who knows anything about necromancy. On their way to the archives, Fanred, Natalya and Aurette walk into Throntuk the Lionhearted, but even though he's suspicious, he lets them pass. After a warning from Fanred to stay together and keep quiet, Aurette and Nat try to search for anything that has to do with necromancy, colossi or Dokani, but they find nothing. Reluctantly, they ask a girl working in the archives, Falgren the Inkstained, for help, and she reacts surprised when Aurette mentions Dokani. Hesistantly, she reveals that Dokani was a powerful necromancer and the sister of the current king, but was executed for treason along with her husband and daughter, and her son was given away. Aurette and Natalya try to convince Falgren to tell them the names of Dokani's children, but she refuses out of fear, since she shouldn't know any of this. Aurette sacrifices herself and tries to charm Falgren into giving her the information by promising to go out with her, but it backfires when Fanred shows up again, though she manages to save her dignity somewhat. They do however manage to convince Falgren to come with them so they can tell her about what's going on in private. In Fanred's room, Falgren tells them Thorn and Felaji are Dokani's children, much to Aurette's surprise- and horror (she promised to be nice to Thorn's sister). Falgren volunteers to find out more about what exactly happened when Dokani and Felaji were executed, and Fanred, Aurette and Natalya make their way back to the room where they left Kirsta and Ainori, so they can regroup before finding Felaji to question her. However, on their way back, the three of them hear suspicious sounds coming from the courtyard. Aurette and Natalya tell Fanred to stay behind, and quietly sneak into the courtyard. There, they see the others confronting the Queen, who is choking the life out of Goluragg. The others desperatly try to free Goluragg without fighting, but fail, and the Queen summons undead to attack them. They struggle to damage the Queen and heal Goluragg, but plagued by horrible visions, they seem to be losing. The Queen taunts them by saying she'll spare their lives if they tell her were Fanred is, but the group remains quiet. Meanwhile, Aurette struggles to keep it together, and keeps missing, being absolutely useless. In the middle of the fight, Fanred suddenly appears. She is willing to sacrifice herself so the others can escape, but they refuse, begging her to run away and save herself. Fanred reluctantly agrees, and sprints out of the courtyard after casting a spell, dodging the attacks of the Queen and the undead. After Fanred has disappeared from their sight, so does the Queen, and the group is alone in the courtyard again. On the ground, Natalya finds a scroll Fanred dropped when she ran away, and inside are the results of a spell she cast on the Queen, revealing her releatives and her feelings about them. However, the spell gave two results for each relative... Worried and confused, they set out to search for Fanred. While unable to find any tracks or signs of Fanred, the group decides to go to the Altar of the New Gods, and leave the lake unvisited. On their way, Aurette finds a smooth rock (for throwing purposes), which she puts in her pocket. After some expected arguing between Aurette and Zra, and some speculation about the Queen being two people, they reach the altar. There, they find Fanred and her friend Delzed, and show them the results of the spell. Fanred is just as surprised, but after they think about it together, they come to the conclusion that the Queen might very well be two person occupying one body, their two likeliest candidates being Dokani and Felaji. Together with Fanred and Delzed, they return to the castle to find more information. Once they get there, however, they find two guards on the ground, Throntuk and Falked, bloody and barely breathing. Above them, a corpse is hanging from the bridge, its hands mutilated. Ainori recognizes the corpse as her father, the King. Silent and in shock, they try to comfort Ainori, heal the guards and let down the body, giving it to Throntuk afterwards. Aurette sits on the ground and tries not to be a baby. Delzed and Fanred tell them to go search for Felaji to find out what's happening, while they evacuate the castle. They agree to meet at the Altar, or should it be unsafe, the lake nearby. Aurette attempts to convince the group to find Falgren first, but fails. On their way to the servant's quarters, Zra notices sounds coming from the room they found Felaji in earlier, and they stop to listen. This turns out to be a mistake, and an undead hand rips through the door and attacks Natalya. They try to fight the undead off, but as it claws its way through, they recognize a familar white mask: Ainori's. They continue to defend themselves, though hesistantly. The undead Ainori tries to communicate with them, telling them Felaji is a traitor, and after they manage to convince her to stop attacking them, they decide to leave her behind for now. In the servant's quarters, they quickly find the room Felaji's in, but Zra tells Aurette to stay outside. Aurette acts offended, but the others tell her it's for the best (and rightly so). Instead, Aurette spends the entire conversation peeking through a hole in the door. Inside, Zra and Natalya try to convince Felaji to help them, but it goes slowly. Felaji confirms their suspicions, and eventually tells them the easiest way to stop Dokani is to just kill her instead. She also admits having killed Ainori, and reveals she and Thorn were supposed to plague the castle so everyone turned into undead. She also mentions an orb that can summon Dokani's spirit, and a flask she had to drink to turn into an undead herself, but she threw the orb into the lake. Bit by bit, they manage to win Felaji's trust, but Brinegill gets impatient and and enters the room, promising Felaji they're able to stop Dokani. Felaji agrees to help them, if they make sure nobody gets hurt, and they quickly make their way to the prisons to get Thorn out of jail. Once they reach the prisons, Aurette has her moment to shine. Using the fake name and title Natalya came up with earlier, she easily gets the group past the guard to get to Thorn's cell. Once there, Natalya has no trouble with getting the lock open. When after a while, no one makes an attempt to distract the guard so they can sneak Thorn out, Aurette angrily walks over and intimidates him into leaving, telling him to evacuate, or else. Aurette's pride is soon cut short, as the other prisoners demand to be freed as well. They try to convince them they're safe, but when they're unsuccessfull, they decide to stop wasting time and visit the lake. Once again, on their way, Aurette decides to make enemies and bickers with Felaji, resisting the urge to throw her rock at her. When they arrive at the lake, Brinegill dives in to search for the orb Felaji got rid off, but she warns her not to touch it, as they're not sure what would happen. Brinegill finds it easily, because she's a fish, and returns to the surface without touching the orb. After studying it for a bit, they come to the conclusion they can't destroy it and the spirit attached to it without activating it first. Quickly, they leave for the Altar again, hoping everyone managed to leave the castle. As the approach it, they notice Falgren in the distance, and Aurette quickly sprints towards her to make sure she's okay. They soon learn Fanred and Delzed are still searching for missing people, so they stay to talk to Falgren for a while. Falgren takes a look at the orb as well, and agrees the spirit should be dispatched first before the orb can be destroyed. She also mentions positive energy should be able to harm it, and so most of the group decides to rest so they can regain their energy. Zra makes the concerning decision to take Mirra, Aurette, Felaji and Thorn with her to look for Fanred, Delzed and Dermazd the Eagle-Caller. Cautionally, the rescue group makes their way back to the castle, keeping an eye out for any signs of Fanred and Delzed. Once they reach the courtyard, they find the undead Ainori standing there, covered in blood. Aurette tries to approach her, and together with Zra, they manage to get some words out of the girl, and they're shocked to discover that it was this Ainori who killed the King. It is then that the undead Ainori notices Felaji is with them, but before she can do anything to hurt her, the group notices the Queen is walking on the bridge above them. Fearing for their lives, they rush into the castle, hoping the Queen didn't notice them. As they run through the hallways looking for the ones they're trying to rescue, they find the undead Ainori is following them, leading the Queen directly to them. Though panicking, they eventually decide to keep going, and end up at the archives. There doesn't seem to be a way in at first, but after they call out, it is Delzed who opens the doors for them. They quickly rush inside, after which Aurette immediately looks for Fanred and Dermazd. While the latter is busy channeling a spell, Aurette explains to Fanred what happened earlier, and expresses her worries of being found by the Queen. Meanwhile, Zra has found a secret exit that leads to the courtyard (just like in the movies), but instead of using it, but after a bit of arguing the group decides to use Aurette's rope to climb out of the window. After everyone is on the ground except for Dermazd, the rope gets thrown back down as the Eagle-Caller looks down on them, telling them she's part of Dokani's plan, but doesn't want her to kill them. While the majority of the group starts yelling, Mirra takes none of that shit, and climbs back up. Once there, she grabs Dermazd and jumps back down, just as the Queen finally reaches the archives. The rescue group makes a break for it and runs back to the Altar of the New Gods. The Queen, strangely, doesn't follow them. When they reach the Altar, exhausting, Aurette immediately ties Dermazd to Mirra, so she can't escape. Natalya is ready to kinkshame her, but the rescue group quickly tells the others what happened. Aurette doesn't trust Dermazd one bit after what happened at the castle, but she listens nonetheless when she tells her side of the story. Apparently, Dermazd believed the ritual would turn the precursors into gods, but only if performed with a power like that of Dokani. She was, however, against Dokani's desire of revenge, and was merely trying to protect the group. They explain to her that the ritual would turn her into a Colossus instead. Afterwards, the group figures out the ritual turns the precursors into the future races, so preventing it from happening would mean erasing their own existence. Aurette isn't pleased to hear this, as she had hoped she could have prevented the precursors from disappearing. Falgren explains she thinks the ritual has three different outcomes: undead people will be turned into Colossi, living people into the future races, and people with a strong power like that of the Necromancer will remain as they are. Aurette realizes this means there's no outcome where precursors exist as they once did, and gets into a small argument with Fanred when she claims none of them understand being alone like she has been. When confronted by Fanred, she tries to get away, but she and Kirsta stop her. Fanred explains she understands how it feels, and tries to convince her family is not just blood related, and Kirsta offers Aurette a spot in her own family. It isn't until Fanred offers to come with Aurette to the future to figure out where she came from that Aurette finally stops crying, and returns to the rest of the group. Once back, the group formulates a plan to get rid of Dokani's spirit inside the orb. They agree Zra is the strongest of them, so Dermazd uses a spell on her spear so she'd be able to hurt the spirit. Aurette worries about being useless in the upcoming fight, but she agrees to come. The next day, they set out to the forest to summon Dokani's spirit and put an end to her, though Ainori, Thorn and Dermazd stay behind. Before they do, there's some bickering about ghosts and trees and if they can climb them, and Aurette tries to get Felaji to promise she's able to fight her own mother. Once they find a suitable spot, they stand around the orb, and Felaji summons Dokani's spirit. The group tries to attack her, but it proves difficult. That is, until modern-day Thorn shows up and joins the battle. Encouraged by his sudden appearance, Aurette tries to stab the orb, but she fucks up and misses. When Falgren mentions the orb is the source of her power, the group focuses their attacks on it, and it quickly shatters, piercing everyone but Aurette, who manages to not fuck up for once. Surprised and relieved, but exhausted, they catch up with the older Thorn, and they realize they have to do something about the undead Ainori back in the castle, as she should be the one to perform the ritual. However, no undeads should be present during it as they'll be turned into Colossi, so they decide to take the modern-day Ainori with them to the future, and find an antidote for her there. While Thorn, Felaji and Delzed stay behind a bit longer, the group returns to the Altar. Aurette, however, can't believe everything is already over, and is convinced this doesn't mean the Queen is gone as well. Though, as they regroup with their friends at the Altar and Natalya goes back to Felaji to retrieve an antidote to cure undead, they still decide to return to the castle once more, taking only Falgren with them this time. Once again, they find someone in the courtyard, standing on the bridge above them, a rope tied to the bridge around their neck and an orb in their hands. They immediately recognize the figure as the undead Ainori, and Aurette and Natalya quickly fire at the rope, preventing Ainori from killing herself for real. Instead of following half of the group into the castle, looking for a way to the bridge, Aurette asks Zra to throw her towards it. Zra agrees, and Aurette miraculously makes it. Once she's standing, she tries to convince Ainori to give her the orb, promising they can cure her, but Ainori won't listen to her. Once Natalya and Brinegill reach the bridge as well, Aurette attempts to retrieve the orb by force. With the help of Brinegill, Aurette manages to get her hands on the orb. Once they look up, however, they see the Queen standing in front of them once more, but she seems different. It appears that Felaji is trying to hold Dokani back. Knowing this, the group takes advantage of it to quickly give Ainori the antidote, bringing her back to life, and destroying the orb as quickly as possible. Aurette manages to get a few hits in too this time, and as they encourage Felaji to be strong and not give up hope, they finally destroy this orb as well. Dokani's spirit vanishes one last time, and they're left with just Felaji. After Aurette and Brinegill fall off the bridge instead of properly climbing down, the stone Felaji retrieves the body of the King, and the group returns to the Altar, leaving the now collapsing castle behind them. Though understandably shocked to see the Colossus Felaji and the now undead body of their ruler, the others at the Altar are glad and relieved to hear everyone is okay. The modern-day Thorn and Felaji have a touching reunion, and the group watches on, satisfied. Felaji and Thorn tell them they intend to stay in the past, wanting to fix everything they've caused. Though disappointed, everyone is proud of their decision, though Aurette had hoped they'd come along, seeing as they'd stay precursors. Though crying, Aurette finally apologizes to Felaji for acting rude when they first met, and Felaji apologizes as well. Afterwards, she gives Aurette her mask, and so does Thorn, so she can remember them that way. Aurette hugs them both while sobbing, giving them the pretty rock she intended to throw at them in excange. She briefly considers staying, but admits she doesn't want to change into another race, and finally realizes Ores isn't her true home. Together with the modern-day Thorn, Felaji and Ainori, Fanred, Falgren, Goluragg and Dermazd, the group sets out for what's left of the castle one last time, returning to the future. Olaka: The Longest Journey More crying and family problems!! HECK YEAH Image Gallery (Aurette Shrine) Aurettedreamer.png|Aurette by Pauline Aurettemarkings.png Aurettenocowl.png Aurettecowl.png Aurettedara.png|Aurette by Dara auretteriley.png|Aurette by riley Aurette Reference.png|Reference AuretteByTess.png|Aurette by Tess Category:Characters Category:Ealdremen Player Characters Category:Fifth Dream